Victor Boyhan
Agricultural Panel · Independent · Ireland
“It also mentions the agrifood sector and the importance of diversification in agriculture, the maritime sector, coastal communities and fishing communities in terms of rural policy.”
“I know from my engagement with both the Department and the Minister that over 900 submissions to the consultation process were received. No Member or parliamentarian will have had the opportunity to consider the anonymised version of these consultations, which contain many good suggestions in favour of the regulations and many concerns in…”
“I welcome the Minister and the official to the Seanad. This is particularly important Private Members' business. I thank Senators Collins and Tully for setting out the background and the rationale behind their Private Members' motion. I acknowledge the Minister's exceptional commitment to rural Ireland and his Ministry.”
“I am conscious of the Minister's public consultation, and I acknowledge it and thank them for it, in relation to the Our Rural Future work programme in 2025. In fairness to him, he did not stop at that. I received a further update when I requested it from his office very recently.”
“This will come about through that process. It is for the Minister to decide. Maybe he will do so tomorrow when the regulations are dealt with. However, when Senators are in this Chamber discussing these regulations tomorrow, they will have no sight of any constituent who made a submission. That is my first item.”
“I am pleased to see Senator Byrne in the Leader’s chair. I wish him well in that job. I also wish him well in his new position as Government Whip. There are three items I wish to discuss today. First is the exempt development regulations, which are being covered extensively in the media.”
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“It is me who is not satisfied. I tabled this matter because I spoke to hundreds of councillors, including many in the Minister's party, who say they are constantly being asked to lobby in respect basic needs and health and safety issues around tenancies in local authority social housing, a matter that comes under the Department's remit. What is my ask? I will close on this. I ask the Minister of State to go back to the officials in the Department to see if we can consider extending the legislation to include social tenants and give them the same rights as private tenants.”
“The kernel of this matter is simple: all tenants in this country, regardless of whether they are renting in the private or public sector, should be treated the same. I am making that case. As the Minister of State rightly indicated and as I already told him, the report of the Housing Commission contains strong recommendations to the effect that the residential tenancy legislation should be extended to cover local authority tenants and their relationships. That is a reasonable and fair request. I do not think you can tolerate or allow two arrangements of protections for tenants to run in tandem. All tenants are tenants. We want to encourage tenants to be good tenants. We also want landlords to be compliant with the law. I do not think it is tenable to suggest that the Minister for housing is currently satisfied.”
“I reckon we should look at the report again if there is an opportunity in the future. I am calling for tenants in local authorities to have full and equal access to these the Residential Tenancies Board. The current situation is simply unacceptable. I will leave it there, other than to say that we should give all tenants the same rights. Let us not distinguish between the rights of public and private tenants. All tenants should have the same rights.”
“They must go back to their local authority, which in this case is also their landlord. I think this is wrong. Council tenants should have access to independent adjudication in respect of complaints procedures. The only right they have now is to go to the Ombudsman. If they have a load of dosh, they can hand it to a load of lawyers and go through the courts, but I do not think that is right, appropriate or fair. It should not happen. I have raised the issue of the Housing Commission report published in May 2024. It is a disgrace that we have not discussed it in the House. There has not been enough discussion of the report and many of its recommendations. For some reason, the Government does not wish to take on board many of those recommendations. It has taken on board some, but not many others.”
“The figures published by the Minister of State's Department show that more than half of all private rental properties inspected last year did not initially meet the legally enforced standards. No mention was made of the local authorities and the standards in that regard. Let us put figures on this. The necessary standards were not met by 37,800 properties. That was out of a total of 62,085 properties inspected. Under the 2019 housing regulations, all private rental properties on the market must meet strict criteria in terms of heat, ventilation, natural light, fire safety, and health and safety. The Minister of State knows the score. Again, there is no mention of the local authorities. Council tenants have no right to an independent inspection of their homes. They simply do not have that right.”
“We have this approach for the private sector but not for the public sector. Some of the largest landlords in this country are our 31 local authorities, which have thousands of houses. Their tenants should have exactly the same rights and be afforded the same rights and opportunities in terms of redress. We also need certification. Of course, the embarrassment is that many of these properties would not pass certification. Many of the local authority properties we expect people to live in have tenants who in most cases have very limited means and cannot afford repairs themselves. I do not want to use a generalisation, but they are not getting the support of their landlord, which in this case is one of the 31 local authorities.”
“I was prompted to do this because a great announcement was made by the Minister of State's Department to clap itself on the back, and rightly so, for the level of inspections of the private sector. It is right that there should be inspections of the private sector. However, no one is talking about who is inspecting council properties. I do not know if the Minister of State saw a report from Samantha Libreri on RTÉ featuring a property in Coolock in north county Dublin with a rodent infestation and electrical sockets hanging off the walls. The tenant was live on the news as well talking about her experience of trying to get support. The report is in the news on the RTÉ Player and can be seen anytime. I am calling for the mandatory inspection and certification of all properties.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. I have not had an opportunity to congratulate him on his appointment. He has been in the House but our paths have not crossed. We worked very well and collaboratively on housing previously, especially concerning the Planning and Development Act 2024, as it is now. The Minister of State has vast experience in and knowledge of local government, particularly regarding housing. He is clearly suited to the post and I wish him every success. I raise the issue of the need for the Minister for housing to commit to a review of the residential tenancies legislation to regulate the landlord functions of local authority-owned dwellings and to formalise this aspect.”
“I ask that either the Taoiseach or Tánaiste come to the House at an appropriate time when they have time in their schedules to tease it out and give further momentum to this. I commend the Taoiseach and wish him well today as he embarks on this meaningful forum that will go on all day today in St. Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle.”
“The current Government has reaffirmed and recommitted itself to its ambitious agenda for this area in building on the vision of our shared island but also the potential. There is a great old expression, "you win the hearts and you win the minds". Geography and boundaries do not divide people. If we find the common thread, common denominator and the humanity, we will see this island prosper and realise its full potential. I am always conscious of agriculture. We are on an island and the potential for agriculture, food and innovation is enormous. It is a multifaceted approach and one I admire greatly. We all support it. A substantial amount of money has been committed to it for the foreseeable future.”
“I raise the issue of the shared island forum. It is 11 o'clock. At 11.05 a.m. the Taoiseach will take to the floor of St. Patrick's Hall in Dublin Castle where he will give an address to the shared island forum. It is significantly important in the context of the shared island initiative. Everyone in this House knows it has been an enormous commitment by him, shared by the Tánaiste. He is fiercely proud of that achievement and initiative and he needs all the support he can muster for it. There is great potential and there are great opportunities. This has all come off the back of the Government's commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. Peace and prosperity must yield results and the Taoiseach's commitment to this dedicated focus on the all-island initiative is good. There is also the Government's commitment.”
“I call yet again for a debate on to the quantum of housing. I told this House last week about the 4Dublin housing supply pipeline report that is given to the Minister. There were 49,000 permissions for residential units and none of them have commenced. In some cases, sites have changed hands one, two and three times. I wish to have a debate on the action plan from An Bord Pleanála. I raise the issue of the Planning and Development Bill, which was guillotined in both Houses because we were told that it had to happen, and it was urgent. Virtually none of it has commenced. The Act has not even been translated into Irish. What is going on with the Housing Commission report? This report was commissioned by the Government. Its members were appointed by the Government. It made fabulous recommendations. Where has it all gone?”
“They also have to make provision for the future of housing need within their jurisdiction and that requires the purchase of lands. South Dublin County Council is making a case that they should be exempt from the residential zoned land tax. In this House last year I said that the residential zoned land tax would become a burden on local authorities and their own lands. Now we have a situation where local authorities throughout this country are going to have to pay residential zoned land tax because they zoned land and brought it in some of the way in terms of infrastructure ready to go for housing. It is crazy and it does not make sense. I reiterate that all local authorities subject to these conditions should be exempt from the residential zoned land tax, as should farmers who are actively farming for agricultural enterprise.”
“The Government is all over the place on land zoning, rezoning and the residential zoned land tax. Why do I say that? A number of local authorities have been approached by the Planning Regulator effectively telling them to dezone. Today, I met a Fianna Fáil man who told me that in Newtownmountkennedy, there were issues about the zoning of land and it came down to one vote. There is a suggestion in some quarters that somehow councillors are in the back pocket of some developers if they rezone land. That is not true. That is not correct and must be refuted at all times. We have the Government encouraging local authorities to build up land banks and rightly so. The Senator will be familiar with this in Galway county. Local authorities have an economic brief and enterprise brief.”
“The final draft of the revised national planning framework was approved by Cabinet yesterday. Since that was announced yesterday, a plethora of statements and circulars have been issued on behalf of the Government through the Minister's office. I wish to acknowledge the importance of the work by me and Senator Higgins because we pursued the Government when these matters were being discussed in the Senate and called for these matters to be brought before both Houses of the Oireachtas. The cover of the final draft of the revised national planning framework mentions that it incorporates amendments arising from the public consultations and from the environmental assessment. Of course, they will be subject to the approval of each House of the Oireachtas. That was a good bit of parliamentary work.”
“Vincent de Paul, the Sisters of Bon Secours, the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of St. John of God the Legion of Mary and one I am glad to see on this list, although I am disappointed with its response, the Church of Ireland representative church body. Clearly, therefore, there are major issues. This is a very important report. I thank the Minister for publishing it today. It raises very serious concerns with regard to the religious organisations but also the Government's response to addressing the redress scheme. We might have a debate on this particular issue at a time that is appropriate to the schedules of the Minister and the Leader.”
“The Government has agreed to accept this contribution. Another body, the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, offered to contribute a building. The Government has agreed that the Minister should consider this offer of this building and engage further with the congregation in respect of it. Only the third body, the Sisters of St John of God, offered a conditional donation of €75,000 to be used as a charitable donation towards the charitable purpose associated with the mother and baby home scheme. The remaining bodies did not offer any contribution. To clarify, in case there is any misunderstanding, the Government wrote to these eight bodies, namely, the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the Daughters of Charity of St.”
“Today, the Minister for children, disability and equality, Deputy Foley, published a report on negotiations with religious organisations associated with the mother and baby institutions payment scheme. Ms Sheila Nunan was the independent negotiator tasked with leading these negotiations with these religious organisations and was very much involved, of course, with our former Minister, Deputy O'Gorman. She engaged with eight religious bodies. This is all clearly set out in the report, which has been available to view on the gov.ie website since this afternoon. On foot of these engagements, only one body, the Sisters of Bon Secours, offered a cash contribution of €12.97 million, which is in line, according to the report, "with the negotiator’s determination of a meaningful contribution".”
“I accept that there are great difficulties and challenges. I do not doubt that people in this House from all parties and none are here to support the Minister. It is important that we stay focused and have real, validated and accurate data for every aspect of the challenges because that instills confidence in policymakers and city and county councillors. I wish the Minister well.”
“We must look at establishing a housing delivery oversight executive because people want to know what is happening and to trust that the figures they are being told are the correct ones, properly validated by an independent body. That saves us from any suggested political manipulation of figures. People want confidence and I am asking the Minister to consider the establishment of a housing delivery oversight office. I want further powers and resources for local authorities so they can be enabled and supported to deliver real and sustainable housing projects within their areas. I want in particular to ask the Minister to take urgent action to ensure the delivery of the greater Dublin drainage project for 2030. The lack of drainage is now a blockage to some development and the project must happen.”
“I indicated to him before he came in that I had received correspondence from a councillor from his party, Councillor Audrey Buckley, about a number of concerns and I am very happy he going to take them up directly and do whatever he thinks is appropriate. I also indicated in advance of this that I had written to the Minister on behalf of Thomas Welby of Galway County Council about Circular 23/21, which was sent to chief executives, regarding the affordable housing fund scheme. The Minister might have a look at that in due course and respond as he considers appropriate. It is important we align our housing provisions and economic development in the national planning framework, as the Minister said.”
“He and his colleagues, be they councillors, Senators or TDs, know the demand for rural housing. It must, of course, be sustainable. I accept that. There must be tough conditions, though fair. I call on the Minister to honour a long-standing commitment of many Ministers to publishing draft new rural housing guidelines. I say "draft" because they should go out for a period of public consultation with all stakeholders and get feedback. Time and again, I meet councillors of all hues and parties who tell me about this and show me letters from the Minister’s Department with promises about guidelines being published. Nothing has been done in that regard for years, so will the Minister consider that important recommendation?”
“Eventually, people saw wisdom and abandoned the scheme. I ask the Minister to take that matter up with An Bord Pleanála. An important document he has not referenced is the Report of The Housing Commission, an excellent body of work. We engaged and the State engaged and got this thing going. We need to have a critical look and tease it out. When the Oireachtas joint committees are established, the one on housing and local government needs to look at that. There is a significant volume of really positive work and if if the Government is not accepting all the commission’s recommendations, it is important for us to know why. The Government owes that to the people who engaged in the commission’s work. I am a firm advocate of one-off rural housing. The Minister represents a rural constituency.”
“I got one of my staff to check it out and was told it had been taken down, so I want the Minister to contact An Bord Pleanála tomorrow and ask it about this. Data and confidence are critical if we are to bring people on this journey and explain the problems. Let us not sweep them under the carpet or hide them. I am not suggesting the Minister is doing any of that, but An Bord Pleanála is under his remit and I am asking for that data to be put back up. I want to know how many units are waiting for approval within An Bord Pleanála under the now-defunct strategic housing development scheme. It is important. The Minister will recall that his colleagues in government billed this as a fast-track scheme, yet thousands and thousands of units still have not been developed under this fast track scheme.”
“If there was a legal challenge, that would be an absolute requirement because people are entitled to litigate as Gaeilge. I am aware that issue is being addressed by the Oireachtas, but resources will have to be put in place, because I am told it may be next year before the full translation of this Bill is ready. I ask the Minister to talk to people in his Department and in the Oireachtas to see how we can fully resource and assist those people to carry out that critical part of parliamentary work. The Minister will be familiar with the, again disastrous, strategic housing development proposals. Until very recently, An Bord Pleanála had a section of its website on it and there were thousands and thousands of units there. I looked for it today and it was gone.”
“We have thousands and thousands of sites that have permission but are being sat on. Who is making the money and capitalising? Local authorities have rezoned. The Planning Regulator may or may not have looked at some of these, but these are sites that are ready to go and technically should be built. You either use it or you lose it. In a housing crisis, those figures are a disgrace. Turning to An Bord Pleanála, the Minister said that planning, rightly, was one of the critical components of this policy. We debated at great length in this House the Planning and Development Bill and the emergency aspect of getting it through. It was guillotined in both Houses of the Oireachtas. We still have not had the Bill translated into Gaeilge.”
“I double-checked with the Planning Regulator on the figures and printed off the report today so I was fully aware of the facts. It is a report that is on the desk of everyone involved in housing. In the document it says that, regarding development potential in active sites, there is a total of 49,212 permitted but uncommenced residential units, that is, permitted but have not been developed. Of those, 41,941 uncommenced units are on 270 inactive sites and 7,272 uncommenced units on 198 active sites. What does that tell us? It is not about the planning. These have got planning. We have heard so much about planning, yet somehow this is there. I am going to email this to everyone here today because we need to look at it. We have to ask, and the Minister and his officials have to ask, what is going on?”
“I often think of the amount of equity, finance and capital we have tied up in private homes in Ireland, because we are so obsessed with ownership of homes. If only some of that was put into enterprise and other venture capital projects, what a different country we might have. I understand the preoccupation and the desire to own your home, but that is another issue for another day. We need to target our resources. I had the opportunity to meet the Planning Regulator at an event the other day and he said something to me which I thought about and emailed him about it the next day. We refer to the Dublin local authority building bulletin quarterly reports, which the Minister will be well aware of. I had not seen the last one.”
“Let us get out of all this ideology of public versus private because it has not got us very far. There are synergies and we can tap into experience and finance from both the private and public sector. That is the way to go, and the Minister has indicated that. There needs to be a significant increase in what I like to call public housing. I do not think we have got our understanding of the Vienna model out of our heads yet. Vienna is a very nice place to be, but the Vienna model is public housing rent based on one's disposable income. That is what it is about. People can be proud and are proud to live in public housing. They want secure tenure and they want fair rent. That is very important.”
“I welcome the Minister. It is the first time I have had the opportunity to meet him in the Chamber. It is a huge, onerous task as Senator Fitzpatrick said. I do not want to spend my ten minutes looking back and I do not want to engage in a blame game. We have to recognise that we have a crisis and we have to do something about it. The State, the Government, the Opposition and whoever else is involved in this need to work in a collaborative way with the local authorities, the construction companies, the public sector and the private sector because, quite frankly, people do not give a damn who is building the houses. We want to build homes and we want to build sustainable communities. That is the bottom line for people. There has to be a synergy between the public and private sector.”
“He will be aware, as are many of us who represent and work closely with our city and county councillors, of the disquiet about how these partnerships were to be established, overhanging issues that have not been resolved, and councillors who indicated their desire to chair some of these partnerships and are still waiting to hear what is going on. The whole thing has become rudderless. For most of us, who are elected by our city and councillors, we owe it to them to champion that issue of community policing and local community safety partnerships. I ask for a debate with the Minister for Justice on this specific matter in the coming weeks.”
“Through their collaboration, trust and shared commitment, better policing has been made possible. I also thank Helen Hall, its CEO, in particular for the enormous leadership role she took on with this task. Since the Policing Authority was established in 2016, it has held 150 authority meetings with the Garda Commissioner, of which 44 were public. It has appointed 346 senior Garda members to Garda staff. It has also had more than 260 engagements with stakeholder groups and organisations and received more than 3,500 consultations and responses. I ask the Leader for a debate on the local community safety partnership.”
“Members will or should know that from today, the Policing Authority and the Garda Síochána Inspectorate will be dissolved and a new policing and community safety authority, PCSA, will be established. This transition is happening as part of a wider policing reform programme called A Policing Service for Our Future and comes as a result of the commencement of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Act 2024. Since its formation in January 2016, the Policing Authority has been committed to overseeing the performance of An Garda Síochána and has championed equality, diversity and inclusion both within the policing service and across our communities. That is an important point we must acknowledge. I express my gratitude to everyone who has worked and supported the Policing Authority over the past nine years.”
“I believe there is a role there, be it on this working group or some other group or through a liaison of the Department itself, for some representatives of sitting county councillors to be engaged and treated as legitimate stakeholders in this process. The Minister of State might think about that and see what opportunities there are in the future where we could incorporate them.”
“I thank the Minister of State for that comprehensive overview of the situation and I think there is heart in that. I wish to reiterate two things. Let us get on and proceed as quickly as we can with identifying the necessary legislative proposals because such proposals will be needed, as the Minister of State has already told the House. Let us also see the necessary requirements established for the transport security force. The Minister of State did not manage to touch on the final piece which was the sitting county councillors. Sitting county councillors - the Minister of State knows this very well as someone who served in local government for years - are central to community policing. They are also central as community stakeholders and advocates for the community.”
“The real issue is that the programme for Government contains a clear commitment, which I had a look at today, to establish a new transport police service with powers of arrest. There has to be a sanction, otherwise it will not be effective.”
“It has been suggested this transport security force would operate in a similar manner, and have similar powers, to the airport police or customs officers. I hope the Minister of State will raise this again with the Department. We must now proceed with whatever course of action the Government has decided on. We must go with it. The Government must identify the necessary legislative proposals and alterations to enable the establishment of this transport security force, whatever shape it will take. We must stamp out antisocial behaviour and violence on our transport network. When I speak about the transport network I am speaking about buses, the Luas, the DART and all rail line services, which are very important.”
“The transport network is an important place and we need to ensure the absolute safety of all its users and that they have confidence in it. SIPTU and other trade unions have, of course, been great advocates of respect for transport workers and this campaign has been run very successfully. I acknowledge the responsible manner in which it has dealt with the consultation process with the Departments of Transport and Justice and An Garda Síochána. We must make the public transport network safe for everyone. I understand the NTA, the unions, An Garda Síochána, the Department of Justice and passenger representative groups have worked collaboratively to try to address this issue. This is important.”
“It is always important to state our public transport network is also a place of work. It is a place of employment. Our transport unions such as Fórsa and the bus and rail unions are deeply concerned about the protection of their members who work in public transport. They are also concerned about passengers. Passengers and transport staff are fearful. In some cases they are terrified in their place of work or on their choice of transport. Their personal safety is of great concern to them. Many of them in our cities, particularly in Dublin, have lost confidence , which is a terrible thing to say. They have lost confidence in using public transport at certain points, at certain times and in certain places.”
“It is interesting to note there are differences in nuance with regard to the view of the Minister for Justice, which he stated prior to taking up the role, and the view of the Minister for Transport. I am sure it will all gel together. The practicalities have to be looked at. Clearly, there are demands on the resources of An Garda Síochána and this must be a consideration in the mix. We have the rise of antisocial behaviour on our public transport network which is simply unacceptable and must be tackled. The Minister of State knows this, everyone knows this, and any public representative will say we have constant complaints about antisocial behaviour and violence. There can be no place for this on our public transport, or no place or tolerance for it in our community.”
“I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to deal with this Commencement matter. For the record, I am asking the Minister for Transport to make a statement on his proposal to establish a transport security force. I am also asking whether city and county councillors are being considered for inclusion in the public transport safety working group. I thank the Minister of State for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Transport and that Department. I will set out some concerns about this issue. I acknowledge the programme for Government contains a clear commitment to establish a new transport police service with powers of arrest. This is the key focus of successful transport policing. If the service does not have powers of arrest, it cannot be effective.”
“I urge everyone to look at the report and to keep in mind that we need to respond to the rising challenges of building better, more caring and stronger supports in our communities for people who need them.”
“It highlights something that is scary, namely, that the highest waiting lists were in Cork and Kerry while the lowest waiting lists, at 0, were in north County Dublin. The largest increase - up 43% on the previous report - was in Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Sligo and Monaghan. This is scary stuff. The report suggests that home care is an eircode lottery. It is persisting and must stop. Why are waiting lists more than five times higher outside Dublin? We need to put particular resources into the areas that have been identified and a statutory list system that documents this data on a monthly basis because unless we measure this and keep an eye on it, we will not go anywhere.”
“It was published in the past day or two and all Members would have received a copy of it yesterday via email. I will spend my time highlighting HCCI's new report on the home care waiting lists because what it has unveiled is a disgrace. We can talk day and night in both Houses about the need to shorten lists and support people who have to stay in their homes and communities, but unless we make tangible efforts to put arrangements around finance and supports in place, we are going nowhere. The buck stops with us as legislators if we cannot lobby and advocate for this sector together. The report clearly demonstrates that home care waiting lists are five times greater outside Dublin. It reveals that 5,556 older people were waiting nationally for home care at the end of 2024 when this report was completed for that period.”
“Averil Power and her team from the Irish Cancer Society are here with us today doing their great work in promoting cancer care, supports, counselling, transport and the multitude of services it provides. They are on here the ground engaging with us and, I hope, making a few bob. Ms Power is a former Senator and is doing amazing work. I wish her well in that. This ties in with what Senator O'Loughlin said about cancer care. Many will be aware that there is an organisation called Home and Community Care Ireland. The former MEP, former Minister and former Member of this House and the Dáil, Frances Fitzgerald, is playing a key role as head of that organisation. It issued a report yesterday on issue No. 4 of the home support waiting list for 2024.”
“There was a general election and the agricultural community, the IFA and other organisations kept the pressure on the Government, and it responded with this promised exemption for the year. We need a long-term, sustainable solution, however, and we do not want tax on actively farmed lands. That is an important policy decision and it is ultimately a matter for the Government. Perhaps in a month's time, we could get an update, or I might even table a Commencement matter in respect of the issue.”
“In light of a very effective campaign by the IFA, the then Minister with responsibility, Deputy Chambers, announced a year's exemption for landowners in budget 2025. To avail of the one-year exemption, landowners must make an application to their local authority to have their lands rezoned based on their current economic activity. It is really important to note that, regardless of the outcome of your application, if you can demonstrate that you have engaged with your local authority in respect of a rezoning, you will have this exemption. You may not be successful, but if you have applied and can demonstrate that, you are exempt. The residential zoned land tax is a big issue. It needs to be addressed and I ask the Leader if we can have an update. Clearly, there are arrangements in place for 2025, and we know the background to that.”
“I raise the issue of the residential zoned land tax. Many of us who are involved in rural communities will know that this week is the last call for the residential zoned land tax. Farmers with land that may fall within the scope of this residential land tax should be fully up to speed on the implications of this tax and ensure their maps are updated in their local authority. This is very important, and I want to flag the need to look at them because this is a tax on active farmland in some cases, which it should not be. I am totally opposed to a tax on land that is in active agricultural use, particularly at a time when we need to be growing more home produce and agricultural produce and supporting active farming. That is something we need to look at again.”
“This is set out in the report of the Food Vision 2030 tillage group. The Minister will be familiar with its recommendations. He also knows about succession planning. We must do something meaningful about that and this means touching on tax arrangements, etc. I thank the Minister. I have no doubt of his capabilities, determination and lived experience in agriculture and rural communities to see these things delivered. I wish him every success in rolling out and supporting Ireland's interest in the Common Agricultural Policy.”
“During the general election campaign, the Minister's party committed to fast-tracking the IT capabilities of his Department, which had experienced a number of delays in scheme payments and related issues due to its IT capacity or capabilities or lack thereof. The Minister is now in office; little did we know when the party was drafting it that he would be. I ask him to really drive that. We must have systems that farmers are confident can deliver the payments of schemes with which they have engaged. If farmers, growers and producers engage with Department schemes in an open, transparent and meaningful way, the Department must honour its side of the bargain. It must deliver the payments in a timely manner. The Minister will be familiar with the €60 million per year support package for the next five years for the tillage sector.”